Episode 3 – Enjoy Poverty

For two years, Dutch artist Renzo Martens traveled across the Congo Democratic Republic videotaping the population’s dramatic living conditions and observing how poverty has become one of the country’s economic resources, even more profitable than the markets for natural resources such as cacao and gold. The second film of a theme-based series begun by the artist in 2004, “Episode III” centers on the neon installation “Enjoy Poverty Please”, which Martens set up in villages during his journey to attract the natives’ attention, and recounts the artist’s attempt to teach the Congolese to re-appropriate poverty and its benefits. In an attempt to force the mechanisms linked to the power of vision in the world of communication and the image, Martens involves a group of local photographers, turning them into temporary reporters. But his program is doomed to failure, and the imperative-logo of his neon sign slowly becomes a warning: for the Congolese, to accept the impossibility of rapid change, and for the artist to accept the futility of his mission. Provocative and controversial, the film was first shown in 2008 within the context of Manifesta 7 in Rovereto, and in 2010 at the Berlin Biennial.